2.5 year break

[Rkd]

Hey there boys and girls.
I was wondering if you could help me with some info.

I've been playing WoW since vanilla and quit around the end of ICC (3 or so months before Cata hit).

Now, for those 4 years that I played, I've mostly been on my hunter. Even though our class went through some big changes over time,
the feel of the class stayed mostly the same (at least to me).

So, with all these changes that happened in the time I was not playing, stuff like: focus, no melee weapons, new talent system, camouflage etc.

I was wondering if the feel of our class changed too much?
How differently are hunters used in PvE/PvP now, if at all?
What are the best/worst things about being a hunter now?
And finally, what's the button situation? Are there too many now, or did they remove some stuff?

Also feel free to add some big changes I might've missed.

Thanks!

[Jumpflood]

Honestly I have to say the changes to hunteres were for the good for sure. I feel the move from mana to energy was the greatest change yet.

[Daetur]

I've been playing my hunter since Classic, and she's my current main, still.

We have a /lot/ of situational buttons, which can be fun, but sometimes overwhelming. I think that they would benefit from being pared down a bit.

We're a little on the weaker side at the moment, but we're not far enough behind for raids and some arena comps to avoid using us for any reason. Perfectly viable, though we're not the "top class." We certainly aren't the bottom.

Best thing about being a hunter? Mobility. Hoooooly crap, the mobility. We can autoshoot and cast Steady/Cobra Shot while moving baseline now, no more need to fox swap. I quite literally could do an entire boss fight, never stop moving, and never take any dps penalty at all. As a ranged class to boot, we're quite possibly THE class that suffers the least from movement right now.

[Rkd]

Best thing about being a hunter? Mobility. Hoooooly crap, the mobility. We can autoshoot and cast Steady/Cobra Shot while moving baseline now, no more need to fox swap. I quite literally could do an entire boss fight, never stop moving, and never take any dps penalty at all. As a ranged class to boot, we're quite possibly THE class that suffers the least from movement right now.

Well, that's excellent news. That's kind of the main reason why I played my hunter.
I was worried that the class went into some other direction, but I guess not.

The only thing that kinda sucks, from what I've read at least, is that MM is not performing as well as other specs.
Though I'm not exactly looking for FotM class/spec, I'm not sure if guilds would accept me as MM.
Perhaps it's time to switch to SV, cause I can't stand BM.

[frigoffrick]

I had a 70 hunter in BC who got deleted, and I never bothered getting him back. I did play tons of end game with him though so I got to experience the way hunters were then.

I am now leveling a new hunter, and already enjoying the changes. Moving while shooting like said above is fantastic... and no minimum range is killer as well.

[clevin]

Most guilds won't care about your spec as long as you perform decently and don't hold them back. Progression guilds probably will want you to do SV or BM, but more casual guilds will just care if you do decent DPS, don't stand in fire and show up.

Focus is an adjustment from mana as a resource but not that much. I raided a bit in ICC as an SV hunter and while it was nice tobe able to burst things without regard to your resource for a bit it was annoying to have to drop to Viper and kill your damage when you were low on mana. Volley is gone, but Multishot is fine. Again, you can't simply spam MS but with the design of Improved Serpent Sting in SV you don't need to.
Being able to move and use cast time shots is great - you'll have to consciously do it since all of your reflexes are against it.

[Deleted]

not really :/